The Close is changing. There’s something amazing about watching this historic campus being slowly transformed thanks to our partnership with Vanderbilt University. Buildings are now ADA-accessible. The brickwork has been repaired. Scaffolding is coming down. The Close is looking stunning.

Unfortunately, the news coverage about our lease arrangement with Vanderbilt University has not always been accurate. The focus has been on Vanderbilt University arriving in New York. General often fails to get a mention, and, sometimes, when it does, the coverage implies we are no longer at Chelsea Square. I want everyone to know that GTS is the landlord of Vanderbilt. We still have a year-round presence on the Close, including offices and apartments, and full use of the Close for six weeks a year for our intensive weeks and alumni programming. Vanderbilt University is a tenant with an obligation to pay us rent and to keep all the buildings maintained up to the highest possible standard.

There are already more than 80 students from Vanderbilt University living on the Close, and Senior Vice President Michael Delashmit has some lovely stories about these students taking an interest in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, asking whether they can come to a service and wanting to listen to choral Evensong. This moment is not simply good for General. It might also be good for those students who have the privilege of staying there for a semester or a year to suddenly see possibilities of divine grace through our continuing presence on the Close.

The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.

President of The General Theological Seminary